Ted Warren's ruminations on teaching, playing, writing, and listening. And also pizza.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

5 Beat figures in triplets

Hello people!

Today I made some video of me playing a groove I stumbled upon last week.

It starts by using this sticking in triplets: RLRLL, it's 5 notes long so it circles around the bar lines in a fun way. Then I started playing it as a sort of Afro-Cuban 12/8 with the right hand on the cymbal and the left hand doing cross stick on the snare and going to the small tom for the left hand double. The first version is with the hi-hat on all 4 beats and bass drum on 2 and 4. Like so:

Next, the same thing with the hi-hat opening on the last triplet of the bar and then closing on the first triplet (with the foot). All quarter notes on the bass drum.

Finally, here's the same idea but with open and closed jazz hi-hat pattern with the left foot.

Certainly there's many different foot combinations we can all torture ourselves with! :)

I think it's important to note that I kept the "voicing" with the hands the same because I tried different ones and that's what I liked the best. Whenever you're working stuff out, take note of what appeals to you and develop that further.